>>21592543The Maghreb but Morocco in particular has always been famous for magic. In the past astrology and ceremonial magic, presumably often combined with Neoplatonism and other 'bida' since that was often the case. And still today, folk magic and syncretic influences from SSA like the zar ceremony. Talk to a devout Muslim from anywhere in the Arab world, they'll tell you Morocco is full of 'witches' and sometimes they're more or less right. There was also some strange sect that only read the Quran in Berber and added some chapters.
The most famous Muslim magical grimoire, Shams al-Ma'arif, was written by Ahmad al-Buni, who lived in Almohad Caliphate, and has both divine magic and black magic. This grimoire deals with the science of letters (Hurufism), the 14 mysterious letters (Muqattaat), the division of the 28 arabic letters into into 28 lunar mansions, the letters of light (14 letters) and darkness (14 letters) and the 4 elements, the invocation and secret of the surah of the Quran (like the Basmalla, Fatiha, etc...) and of course astrological magic squares about the 99 names of Allah. There is also the demonic parts like summoning and control over the 7 djinn kings, the solomonic djinns and their ifrits. Even then this is done by using divine names of Allah to put them into submission.
I strongly suspect that if you read into it deeply you're going to find the Almohad were the only north african dynasty you can fully identify with religiously, one of the only Islamic dynasties period actually. Orthodoxies always try to whitewash the past to increase their own sense of historical continuity. Minimizing the extent to which syncretism, 'magic' (rituals that have been disapproved by an orthodoxy then or at a later date), and noncomformity were present. Even Muslim Ibn Hajjaj was doing astrological magic.
https://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2010/07/black-magic-through-holy-quran.html?m=1 